Hena: The Awakening of Lah'ral
by Ruse07
Summary: Just a short story of the Orc Warrior Hena who becomes the Death Knight Lah'ral. T for mild violence.


Disclaimer: Don't own anything mentioned in this story, all characters are ownership of Blizzard Entertainment. Lah'ral is the name of my Death Knight. A friend wrote this story for me and I loved so I thought I would share it with everyone : )

Hena: The Awakening of Lah'ral

_Darkness. Eternal, lonely darkness. For hours I lingered there. For ages I simply heard my own screams echo back at me. Then suddenly a bright light. So beautiful, so warm, so welcoming like the Ancestors of old were welcoming me back once more. And now I…._

"Wake up, girl!" a harsh voice snapped Hena from her trance. It was a voice that sounded more like a bark rather than actual words. "We do not have time for this!"

A solid object had taken refuge on her side and was striking it repeatedly. She felt no pain where the object was beating into despite the crunching sound that it was making. The pounding stopped for a brief moment until one final blow sent the orc female spiraling off of the slab that she had been laying on. She quickly caught her balance and let out a roar that shook the icy shingles that hung over her, and a room full of observers heads. A muffled groan of excitement followed the sounds of the shingles until they stopped shaking.

"Good, the last one is finished! The Alliance dogs are done for!" the barking voice cackled at the thought. "Send word to Doomhammer. Gul'dan's treachery may have doomed us, but the last of the Death Knights at the Warchief's command has awakened and we shall send them to the frontlines immediately."

"Aye, chieftain," another voice sound up and disappeared against the sound of footsteps.

'Gul'dan,' Hena thought to herself. 'Warlocks.' As she came to the realization of her surroundings, the orc noted that the room was filled with green skinned orcs, all with glowing red eyes filled with lust and hatred. Hena was standing at the center point of a gathering of Shadow Council members. But what the first warlock said about a Death Knight…

"You!" as if he had heard his queue. Hena quickly spun around, the memory of the orc's corruption sinking into her mind. Letting out another roar she leapt towards the warlock who grinned at her, mocking her every step. When she was just an arm's length away, her legs suddenly collapsed and felt herself being bound by unseen chains rising from the floor.

"Ah, my new pet has teeth. I like that," he smirked at the squirming orc female. He lifted a gloved hand, revealing an odd stone that kept Hena's gaze. "Rise, Lah'ral, Champion of Doomhammer. You have a much bigger task than trying to harm your puppet master."

Hena opened her mouth to speak her true name, acting as if the warlock had spat on it. She found that her body no longer listened to her and the name the warlock had given her was quickly taking the reigns over her true one. She felt her body rise, the sound of crunching ice echoed from her joints. As she stood her full height, a head above the warlock, he suddenly pointed towards a large doorway. Lah'ral's body followed the gesture and she found herself unwillingly marching ahead of a sea of warlocks that were pouring into the hallway behind her.

Eventually the hallway turned to rough stone and the rough stone ended in an exit to open air and a cliff overlooking a large battlefield where the green skinned orcs and strange, metal clad pink skinned creatures were engaged in war. Several others awaited them on the ledge, a few of them looked similar to the pink skins below but had long since lost most of the pigmentation and patches of skin had gone missing. Each of the Death Knights turned and greeted the warlocks coming from the tunnel.

The first one grinned widely at his creations before pointing down at the chaos below. "For the Horde, brothers!" He roared over the sound of clashing metal and screams of death. "The dark fury of the Horde will be unleashed at its fullest with the last of the Death Knights awakened!"

Unwillingly, Lah'ral and the others roared alongside the warlock before charging down the cliff face and into the unwavering forces below. Lah'ral was the first to meet the chaos, cleaving through three enemy soldiers with her axe. Another attempted to flee away from her and before she could think about it she swung her axe towards him, unleashing a fiery skull from the tips. It struck the man in the back causing him to fall forward and even from as far back as she was Lah'ral could see that he was dead before he had even hit the ground. The others landed with loud clumps behind her, the newborn Death Knight ignored them and charged into the fray once more.

The battle lasted hours, providing the orcish warrior, now Death Knight, with extensive training to what the warlocks had 'gifted' her with. Her thoughts were suppressed, her movements controlled by the warlock who stood several feet away, watching as his experiments triumphed over endless wave of humans. Lah'ral slew men left and right using unholy powers as well as her own might to her advantage. Until one human, clad in golden armor and smeared with the blood of orcs, stood before her. This one had a stronger purpose than the others before him and on a subconscious level, this was the one she was fighting to get to. This was her prey upon the field.

"You abominations! How dare you appear before me!" The Paladin spat at the orc. "You shall perish before the power of the Holy Light!"

As he said that, he began charging towards Lah'ral, his eyes ablaze with hatred and unkempt zeal. Without hesitation, Lah'ral swung her axe heavily towards the man who simply ducked under the horizontal arc and slammed his shield into Lah'ral's torso. She slid back just far enough to hit the warlock holding the stone that had bound her. He shifted position and pointed towards the holy warrior, a bolt of pure shadow flying out of his stretched hand. The bolt struck the Paladin's plated chest but dispersed, leaving nothing but a scorch mark on his colored tabard. The warlock hissed at the sight and spun around to flee from the man, dropping the stone in the process.

"Cowardly dog, how dare you run from me!" The paladin yelled after the warlock, a magical silver hammer appearing in his hands. With great accuracy he whirled the hammer at the warlock, catching him in the back of the head and knocking it clean off of his shoulders. Lah'ral had watched the scene with unfocused eyes. As the warlock fell she faced the paladin once more.

The gleam of his sword caught her attention as she faced her assailant. She raised unarmed hand, she had unknowingly dropped her axe when the warlock had dropped the stone, and the blade slid perfectly in between the bones in her forearm. Feeling no pain from it, she twisted her arm and wrenched the blade free of the Paladin's hand. Caught off guard by the display, the human's eyes went wide as Lah'ral stared down upon the human. Her hands wrapped tightly around his neck as she lifted him into the air. The Paladin kicked and bellowed against her grasp but knew the grip could have been owned by death itself.

"For the Alliance!" was the last thing he yelled out as Lah'ral crushed his wind pipe and snapped his neck. Letting him free, the limp Paladin fell to the ground. The orc Death Knight took two steps back away from the corpse. A loud crushing sound reached her ears just as she noticed that she had stepped on the gem that she had been bound too. Suddenly her thoughts were her own again and she had full memory both of her's and the body's she now accompanied. Lah'ral stood in the middle of the battlefield as these memories sunk in.

Lah'ral was the name of orc whose body she now possessed. From the memory, Lah'ral's soul was severed through the nether, leaving her body as an empty shell. The warlocks who had cast the spell knew nothing about what they had done and accidentally grabbed Hena's prison to use in the spell for bringing Lah'ral back.

Hena sunk to her knees. For her own memories now came to her. The last she remembered was being in the Earthfury's courtyard in Shadowmoon Valley several weeks after Gul'dan convinced the orcs to drink from the cursed chalice. She remembered watching as the green skinned orcs ravished her home and surrounded her and her love.

Her love! Tears crept to the sides of her eyes when she remembered the look on his bloodied face as he crawled to her, her life force already fading. Pand'thea was dead, her clan gone, the body was not hers and she was now an abomination to what her clan had held dear as well as the Ancestors she was denied to ascend to.

Before the battle had finished, Lah'ral had slipped away into the fiery night. Last anyone had seen or heard she was heading north into the unknown where she wished to learn more about her surroundings and what had become of her people. She would watch as the lands changed. The orcs captured then freed. The fall of the human kingdoms against a scourged force. And even the coming of darkness as a large fortress landed not far off from where Lah'ral had lived as a hermit. It is said that somehow a Death Knight had slipped into Archerus, the Ebon Hold, and played a role in calling forth the Lich King's great betrayal of his men. Afterwards, it is said that a orc Death Knight now sits in the tavern of Orgrimmar, drinking heavily and sharing tales of a time long past.

Unknowing to her, that a passing ear would recognize such tales. An ear that belonged to one also forgotten by time and history. An ear that would carry her tales back to the one who had told them to begin with. And who happened to be alive and well in a far off land…

A/N: For the Horde!


End file.
